Chapter 6 — Lottery Ticket Without Name

Phuc was taken to the hospital because he was hit in the ribs. He still kept the locker key, but Lam's notebook was missing a page.

Nhi asked for union fund data. Three large withdrawals appeared on the same days the factory reported losing power. The timekeeping machine room records that workers have worked all shifts, but the camera is black.

Quan realized that power outages always occur when money leaves his account.

They looked for the person in charge of electricity. An aunt named Hanh said she was once asked to sign a minutes of power cut off for "maintenance". She kept the original for fear of being blamed.

The minutes have the order number coinciding with the computer room number. The person giving orders is the foreman.

The police searched the office, but the manager ran away. Tai was arrested at the bus station, refusing to say where Lam was.

Thanh sent a photo of Lam tied up, along with the ransom amount. Nhi said the photo was old, but Quan recognized that the wall behind was the cold storage of the old factory.

They arrived at the warehouse with a search warrant. Lam is gone, only a speaker plays back his voice. In the foam box, they found a second phone and fake lottery tickets.

The fake ticket has the same serial number but lacks the publisher's stamp. Someone plans to use it to create another “winner.”

Quan tried calling Lam's number from his old phone. This time someone heard and just said: "You're looking at the wrong person."

He sent the coordinates of a land along the river. There, Quan found Lam's jacket and a hook ring.

Nhi asked if Lam had escaped, why didn't he come back? Quan looked at the blood stains on his shirt.

The notebook with missing pages was found in a shirt pocket. The page records the names of the people who signed on behalf of the foreman: Tai, Thanh and a person named Khanh — chief accountant of the investment fund.

Khanh is the one with the right to transfer money. He is also the person who approved Lam's death insurance.

Nhi called Khanh. He answered calmly, saying Lam died of an accident and the ticket belonged to the union fund.

Quan asked: "If the fund owns it, why doesn't the ticket state the name of the fund?"

Khanh replied: "The ticket holder is not the owner."

That's what Thanh once said.

Quan did not respond to Khanh. He pulled Lam into the next compartment, where there was a door leading to the technical track. Mrs. Sau pulled the circuit breaker and the entire station platform was plunged into darkness.

The sound of running footsteps. The person wearing the hook ring hit the carriage door, making the metal vibrate. Quan used a wrench to block the latch, then helped Lam through the narrow passage full of oil.

Nhi was behind, running and sending her location to the police. She said the memory card had been backed up to the lawyer's server, but the original still needed to be kept for examination.

They exited the tracks at an abandoned warehouse. Phuc was waiting with an old truck. Quan put Lam in the trunk of the car, and Mrs. Sau sat next to the driver. When the car started, a bullet hit the rearview mirror.

Phuc turned through the brick factory, turned off the lights and let the car run by inertia. Lam closed his eyes because of the pain, but his hand still held tightly to the moisture-proof bag containing the ticket.

“Don't let them take the ticket,” he said.

Quan replied: "I care more about you."

"If they lose the ticket, they will deny everything. You will become a thief, I will become a dead person, and the funds will disappear."

Nhi opened the memory card on the tablet. The first file is the money transfer table, the second file is the online meeting. During the meeting, Khanh said the investment fund had lost money because of a land project. The foreman proposed to use union money to temporarily compensate, then take the insurance from those who "can no longer protest".

Another voice asked: “What about the ticket?”

Khanh replied: "If the number wins, it is the property of the holder. The holder must be Quan. We just need to make he signed.”

Quan heard that sentence and suddenly understood why his debt was pushed up. They wanted him to no longer be able to refuse.

Hanh, the person in charge of the electricity that Nhi had met, called. She said the power cut record was not completely fake; the foreman had the authority to sign for maintenance, but the order to extend the three hours was sent by Khanh via email. In the email there was an attachment titled “K-17/adjustment”.

“I downloaded the file,” Hanh said. “But someone came into my room.”

Quan told her to send a copy immediately. Hanh was silent for a few seconds then said: "I sent it to Mrs. Sau before."

Ms. Sau looked straight at the road, not explaining. Quan realized she had been preparing for a long time, not because she trusted anyone, but because she knew that workers often only heard the truth after everything had been fixed.

The car stopped at a suburban medical station. The doctor bandaged Lam's leg and confirmed that he had a slight fracture and many old bruises. Lam does not want to be hospitalized; He was afraid that the records would be used again to "prove" that he was dead.

Nhi asked the police for protection. Lam agreed, but before leaving, he gave Quan a white envelope.

“Here is a list of people whose autographs were bought by Khanh,” Lam said. “There's a name you didn't expect.”

Quan opened the envelope. The last line reads: Ms. Sau - the person who confirmed receiving the ticket back.

Mrs. Sau looked at the paper and did not deny it.

“I signed so they would think I delivered the tickets,” she said. “But I have never delivered it. I want to know who they will turn to after that.”

Just as Quan was about to ask more, Nhi's phone rang with a new transaction: one hundred million transferred from the union fund to Ms. Sau's account.

The person transferring the money is Khanh. The content reads: “Silence fee.”

Ms. Sau did not delete the message. She forwarded it directly to Nhi and asked to record her statement that night. Khanh called twelve times in a row, then sent one sentence: "You are turning yourself into a criminal."

“I used to be afraid of this sentence,” Ms. Sau said. "But if you stay silent, the patient still has no money, and the person who withdrew the funds still calls himself a good person."

Lam was taken to a safe place. Before the car left the medical station, he turned to Quan: "I thought if I just found the ticket, everything would be over. Turns out it only opens up people we don't dare ask.”

Quan looked at Khanh's text message, then looked at the evidence bag. He understood that the piece of paper did not speak the truth on its own. It just forces people to ask questions in front of each other, where no one can erase a login history or change a signature.